Man: The Image of God

 

Genesis 1:26

God created man in His image.  What does this mean?

There are several  interpretations of this verse. 

I don’t want to over analyze it or impose super intellectual thinking  to this, sometimes we over analyze things.

I think the simplest explanation is that we are a spirit being as God is a spirit being.

 

John 4:24 

He created us to have fellowship with Him and dominion over His creation.

To accomplish this man had to be more than a spirit being, he had to have substance.  He had to have the ability to perform the works God intended therefore, we were created as a triune being, which is also a likeness of God.

 

Man is a spirit who posses a soul and lives in a body.

This is the three dimensions of man spirit, soul and body.

 

The spirit is the real you.

It is the inner man that contacts God.  John 4:24   We have to worship Him in spirit and truth.

When Adam sinned, the sin nature was passed down to all of us. God created us to have eternal life and that was lost to us through Adams transgression.

 

This spiritual death created a God shaped void in man.  Man is seeking to have it filled and the only way to do that is to be born again.

Jesus tells us this in John 3:3.

 

Once we have experienced the new birth 2 Cor 5:17 tells us we are new creatures.

This means that we are back to what God had originally created, us in His image.

It is the rebirth of the human spirit.

 

However, we still have a soul and live in a body.

 

The soul:

Many people confuse soul and spirit. Hebrews 4:12

The soul is the mind, stimulated by the five senses.  The intellect of the person. It encompasses all the aspects of personality,  temperament,  emotions, feeling, passions, affections and the will. It is the part of the man that reasons and thinks.

We have a will and free choice.  This is part of the image of  God.

It is important to remember that the soul is worldly, influenced by the world.

 

 

The body:

The body is the earthen vessel  in which we dwell.

It is what contacts the physical things around us.  The body functions through the five senses, hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and feeling.

It is in touch with our environment.

The body, through the five senses feed the mind, gives it input to form the intellect.

 

I Thess 5:23

Our whole spirit, soul and body are to be kept blameless until the coming of the Lord.

 

How do we do this?

God wants us to be spiritual beings.  He wants us to grow out of immaturity into mature Christians.  To not be carnal, but spiritual. I Cor 3:3

 

How do we become spiritual people?

 

Romans 12:1-2

 

We present our bodies our bodies as spiritual sacrifices.

Your spirit is born again, not your mind or body.  And to walk successfully in your Christian Life, you must be spirit controlled and not body or flesh controlled.

 

Romans:  7:14-25

 

Key points:

“I am carnal.”

“What I will to do, I do not.”

“My members, (flesh), war against  my will.”

Will - according to Strong concordance is mind.

This is the battle that goes on between you spirit controlled mind and your flesh.

“I serve the law of God”    Walking in the spirit.

The Flesh serves sin.

 

We have to crucify the flesh and get it under control

The flesh or your body is controlled by your mind.  To be spirit controlled you have to have your spirit in dominance and in agreement with your mind.

To do This you have to renew your mind.  Just as Paul stresses in Rom 2:2

James 1:21

To save our soul we have to receive the implanted word and are doers of the word.

 

Being a doer of the word is not doing church works, it is doing what God tells us to do  to be mature Christians.

 

Look at your life.

Do you put God First?

Is His Word First?

When you encounter a situation do you react first and then think what God’s word says about it, or do you Look  to God’s word first.

Do you spend time in prayer.

 

These are all things we have to do to be spirit dominated., and the full image of God,  a spirit man living in a spirit controlled body driven by a renewed mind.

 

Joshua 1:8

“these words shall not depart from your mouth and you will meditate in them day and night”

Meditating on the word is not sitting in an incense filled room with candles “thinking Godly thought”

It is studying the word, restudying the same things until you get it in your inner man.

Head knowledge and heart knowledge are not the same thing.  Most Christians have head knowledge and not heart knowledge.  They walk by sight and not by faith.  That is why they are not victorious in their lives.

 

You cannot walk in faith if you are dominated by your unrenewed mind.

Your unrenewed mind if full of doubt and unbelief.

The only way to counteract that is by staying in the word and meditating on it.

 

You need to spend time in prayer.  Pray in the spirit.

Praying in the spirit tunes your spirit into God.  It enables you to bypass your mind and body and be exclusively in tune with God. 

It does not give you power. 

You already have the power when you were spirit filled. Act 1:8 says “you will receive power when the spirit comes upon you.”

You already have the power, you just have to be tuned into God and access it.

It enables you to grow in knowledge and wisdom.

 

Spending time in prayer is not constantly running to God every time something happens. And then that is the only time you pray.

It is praying without ceasing, singing psalms, giving thanks.

It is praying for others, praying for your leaders, you church leaders, your family.

 

Your work situation.

Ex:  Wednesday night,  not thinking about my needs but those of someone else.

I had already prayed and believed and discussed my needs with Pastor.

I wasn’t even thinking of me and God Blessed me in a big way.

Identify your needs, find out God’s answer and pray in faith and then stand.

Sometimes we really have to get our eyes off of ourselves.

 

Walk in love at all times.

Remember God’s nature is love, His nature is in us and we need to let that love dominate us and our thinking and feeling.  You do this my staying in the word, gaining wisdom and practicing God’s word.  It takes time it doesn’t just happen overnight. 

Don’t be bogged down with envy, strife, jealousy.

 

Rom 13:13

I Cor.3:3

James 3:13-18

I Peter 2:1

 

Let me leave you with a few thoughts.

Growing up spiritually is your responsibility, not God’s.  You present your body, you renew you mind, you pray in the spirit and with your understanding.

You choose to do the Word. 

You choose  to walk in love and forgiveness.

You choose to give.

You choose to be obedient.